Abstract
The transformation of humanitarianism since the end of the Cold War has raised heated debates about the intersection between the principles of impartiality, neutrality and the politicization of relief efforts which increasingly defines humanitarian action today. This debate is partially fuelled by the traditional understanding of humanitarian assistance as an act of empathy and compassion, i.e. as an inherently moral and apolitical activity, which, in the context of contemporary armed conflicts and the expansion of the humanitarian enterprise, is increasingly difficult to sustain. An alternative approach to this debate is to conceptualize humanitarian action as a matter of rights. Such an approach is implied by Alex De Waal who suggests that in the context of contemporary humanitarian crises the question is no longer the existence of humanitarian response as such but rather its quality, which signifies that “a right to humanitarian assistance, which would have been a fantasy several decades ago, is now within reach” (De Waal 2010, p. 134). In this article I intend to follow this idea further and suggest that a right to humanitarian assistance already exists, albeit not in international legal frameworks, but by virtue of contemporary humanitarian practices as well as the framework of the responsibility to protect. Furthermore, I will argue that the existence of a right to humanitarian assistance is largely dependent on the functioning of the global civil society that constitutes this right through its political and normative potential. As such the global civil society re-affirms its position as a significant humanitarian actor. To make the argument I will firstly outline the transformation of humanitarianism that has taken place since the end of the Cold War and overview the existing political frameworks that allow speaking of a right to humanitarian assistance as such. I will then proceed to analyze the concept of the global civil society in empirical, political and normative terms to demonstrate its role in constituting a right to humanitarian assistance. I will conclude this article with several remarks regarding the implications of constituting humanitarian assistance as a matter of right, both for the global civil society and those who are seen as holders of such a right.
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Miglinaitė, R. (2015). Global Civil Society as a Humanitarian Actor: Constituting a Right of Humanitarian Assistance. In: Gibbons, P., Heintze, HJ. (eds) The Humanitarian Challenge. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13470-3_5
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